1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method using the same, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus for regional image enhancement and an image processing method using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current image enhancement technologies are divided into two categories—global image enhancement and regional image enhancement. The former directly adjusts the luminance of an entire image, whereas the latter determines an enhancement level of a region of an image according to the corresponding regional luminance of the image. Compared to global image enhancement, regional image enhancement in general yields better image quality, and the contrast of individual regions of the image processed by regional image enhancement is also higher.
However, regional image enhancement requires a larger computation amount and also has higher hardware costs. Therefore, there is a need for an image processing technology that effectively reduces the computation amount and lowers hardware costs for regional image enhancement.